Shonda Rhimes Wants You To Own Your Work: 'Plant A Flag, Get A Stake And Build That Up.'

Shonda Rhimes is often outspoken about the issues facing Hollywood, specifically representation, both in front of and behind the camera.

Deadlinereports that during the 2017 Vanity Fair Summit, the television genius was on hand to dish words of wisdom to a packed audience eager to hear from the Grey's Anatomy creator.

Discussing the importance of having ownership of your work, Rhimes dished, "It’s important to have a stake in what you make. I think that that’s been a problem since the beginning of time."

She added, "I think of myself as more of a businesswoman and I have had to learn what’s important and what is not in terms of not getting screwed financially. There’s a lot of people in this town that don’t know what the value of their work. … What’s important is to plant a flag, get a stake and build that up."

"It’s an obvious fact that the world looks like what it looks like, which is I don’t walk out and see a sea of white men," Rhimes said. "That’s not how the world looks to me, and that’s certainly not interesting."

She added, “There’s a problem with the idea that a movie that stars a white guy is a movie but if it stars a female then it’s a female-driven movie, or if it stars a black person, it’s a black film. There is something inherently ignorant about that.”